A rally has been finalised on May 18 by the unions in this regard. Some of the labour unions that participated in the Friday meeting included AUITECH, Citu, Maruti Suzuki Labour Union, Hindu Mazdoor Sabha and HeroMoto Corp Union.

Europe's largest automotive group is poised to replace group chief executive Matthias Mueller this week with Diess, a cost-cutter hired in 2015 from BMW as it seeks fresh impetus for its recovery from an emissions scandal.

The German carmaker has proposed a 30-month wage contract for about 120,000 staff, with the two-step salary increase starting in May, it said in a written statement published after talks with the IG Metall labour union.

Nearly a million workers have already taken part in short walkouts across the country this month to support IG Metall's demands for higher pay and the right to shortened working hours, but 24-hour strikes may pose a serious risk to industrial output in Europe's biggest economy.

"The economy is booming because the employees like those here at Daimler do good work every day," regional IG Metall head Roman Zitzelsberger said in a rally at the gates of Daimler's factory in the town of Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart.

On an April morning last year, 37-year-old Shatrughan Prasad was working his shift in an auto component manufacturing unit in Manesar when his head got stuck on the conveyer belt. His fellow workers recall how Prasad remained trapped till the owner of the plant allowed the machine to be stopped. Nearly an hour and 30 minutes later, he was taken to Rockland Hospital.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday by former Tesla worker Marcus Vaughn on behalf of a group of black workers at the plant, claimed that they were addressed using racial slurs and that the company ignored their complaints.